Kimball Farms hits holiday airwaves

By Kate AbbottPrint Story | Email Story
LENOX — It’s like a riddle: in it, the eldest plays the youngest and the young lovers are a married couple. In it, film comes to the theatre and radio comes alive. In it, an angel flies without wings and a man with no past reclaims the future. And it combines the talents such diverse people as a retired air force colonel, a Shakespearean scholar and a dressmaker who clothed the children of Robert Kennedy and Queen Elizabeth II of England, according to Claire Cox, a resident at the Kimball Farms retirement community. On Tuesday, Dec. 16, a wide-ranging cast of residents at Kimball Farms staged “Merry Christmas, George Bailey,” a radio play based on the film, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Ed and Marjorie Van Dyke starred as George and Mary Bailey, and Trude Geismar, Kimball Farms’ oldest resident, played the youngest part, George’s daughter Zuzu. The Kimball Farms actors turned an old Lux Radio Theatre script into a De-Lux Radio Theatre Production. They told the story of George Bailey, an eldest son who gave up his dreams of travel to marry the woman he loved and run his father’s savings and loan business, helping his neighbors to finance their own homes. After joys and setbacks, the savings and loan faces what looks like an irrecoverable loss and George Bailey considers suicide — until Clarence, a bumbling angel hoping to win his wings, comes to the rescue and gives George a chance to see the value of his own existence. The performance followed a choral concert with the music of hand bells and recorders. It was Kimball Farms’ first major theatrical production, according to Music Director Allie Holmes, conductor of the chorus. The community has had talent shows but never anything like this. “We may do more now that we’ve broken the ice. People are having fun with it,” she said. They have had the chorus and the bell choir for years, but they decided they needed a few things to pep up life, she explained. “Twelve years ago, someone said to me, “we don’t have enough fun around here. We need to laugh more. We planned a night of silly skits and called it a frolic,” she said. “My son came and did sound effects. He talked like someone from outer space and told everyone to buckle up their seat belts for a performance like no other.” The tallest man in residence danced with the shortest woman to “Tip-toe Through the Tulips,” and others got up on stage with similar funny and informal performances. The community has had three frolics in all and also small Christmas scenes — Santa reading “The Night Before Christmas,” for instance. “If it ain’t fun, it’s wrong,” said Meta Ukena, who directed the community’s new exploration into theatre on a grand scale. Ukena has been involved in every kind of theatre from professional to children’s, from Texas to New York. She has experience on stage, in music direction and coaching, as a professional accompanist and she has taught music in all grades from kindergarten to college. Cox brought the script came to Kimball Farms. She got involved with a production of it when she lived at Heritage Hills, another retirement community, she said. She did publicity for that show, as she has for the Kimball Farms production. She borrowed the script from David Guest, a friend of hers. He sent 20 copies, and the Kimball Farms team revised the script for their cast of 24. Guest saw it performed on PBS by the Pasadena Playhouse, in 1997, with Bill Pullman as George, Nathan Lane as Clarence, Penelope Ann Miller as Mary and Sally Field as the narrator and George’s mother, Cox explained. “It was riveting,” Guest said. He tried to get the script, but the playhouse did not cooperate. It seemed that the original movie had never been copyrighted and therefore the script might have been in the public domain. The studio that made the movie disputed that claim and got into a drawn-out fight with the producers of the Pasadena show. Guest taped the show and manually transcribed the script. Later, he got a copy of the movie script and compared the two. “What you have, therefore, is my interpretation of what the Pasadena Playhouse actors were saying during their magnificent performance. It seems to work pretty well,” he said. “Meta has worked very hard on this and put in a lot of effort,” Cox said. Ukena lives at Kimball Farms in the winters. She returned this fall to find plans for the production already in progress, she said. She held open-call auditions and handed out parts. Some of the actors have had experience in community theatre, but most are new to the stage, she said. They rehearsed through November. “They’re a bunch of good sports, taking what I scream at them,” Ukena said. Cox did the sound effects for the production with a bell and wind chimes and a ringing phone. She also helped Clarence, Angel Second Class, into his new-won wings before his final appearance. “Are you qualified?” he asked her. “No, but I’ll try,” she said. “You haven’t spent much time in heaven, I take it?” “No,” she said, “and I don’t plan to!”
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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